


Drifting Delta Force

by somehowunbroken



Category: Intelligence (US TV 2014), Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 17:46:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2781989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley's ready to find her drift partner. She's just not so sure it should be Gabriel Vaughn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting Delta Force

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muir_Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/gifts).



> I've never written either of these fandoms before, but a friend mentioned this fusion idea and I saw that you had Pacific Rim in stories you've written for, so... I'm really, really hoping you like this. Happy holidays :)

Riley does her best not to have any expectations. She really, really does. But the thing is, that's almost impossible to do when you spend your life around Jaegers, when you're raised by _Lillian Strand_ , when you train as hard as you can to become the best that you can, and when you find out that the guy they're bringing in to pilot with you is _Gabriel Vaughn_.

Yeah. Riley's had that kind of day.

"Lil, no," she says when she can find her voice again. "That guy… you know what they say about him." She lowers his voice. "He lost it when his wife-"

"You know better than to judge a person before you even meet them," Lillian says evenly, and that's the tone of voice that makes Riley want to cringe away. She doesn't remember her biological parents all that well, but she does know that her mother had had that exact same tone of voice for _I'm disappointed in you, young lady_.

"Fine," Riley mutters. "I'll see if I'm drift compatible with him. You know I'll do my best, but don't blame me if it doesn't work out."

"That's all I can ask," Lillian says. She pauses for a moment before shaking her head. "Shen and Nelson are excited about him coming back to the fold, so just… stay out of the way for a little while." There's a ghost of a smile around Lillian's lips, and Riley can't help but mirror it. The science duo have spent so long in the lab trying to help Riley fix Delta Force that they're probably ready to burst with excitement over getting out.

"I'll just wait in the gym," Riley says. "Bring him down when he's done getting the Cassidy treatment."

-0-

Riley knows that she'll have a lot of advantages in the spar. She's been trained under pretty much everyone Lillian could bring in from the World Army on down, she's seen the footage of Vaughn sparring from his first go-around, she's younger, faster, lighter. She's been training for this moment nonstop since she realized that Lillian would let her pilot if she found someone she was compatible with. Vaughn's been out of the field for years, though, ever since Delta Force fell and his wife was torn out of the Jaeger. He quit almost as soon as he was released from medical, insisting that Amelia was alive, that he had to go and find her.

Nobody believed him, of course. Riley's seen that footage, too, the last moments recorded on the internal monitoring equipment before the left side of Delta Force was ripped off, the awful screaming from Vaughn as his wife disappeared from sight-

Riley shakes her head. There's no way Amelia survived that, no matter what Vaughn wants to believe. The fact that he'd spent the years since that day searching for her, alone in the wilderness, lends credence to that theory. Riley knows what it's like to need to hold onto that kind of hope, though, so even if she doesn't necessarily want to co-pilot with Vaughn, she'll give him the benefit of a spar.

"So you're Lil's pipsqueak," someone says, jerking Riley out of her head. She looks up to see Vaughn smirking at her from across the gym. "Funny, I remember you being a lot smaller."

"I remember you looking a lot less like a yeti," is all Riley can think to say. Vaughn looks like he hasn't touched a razor since he left Cyber Command. They hadn't spent a lot of time together before Vaughn left, but she's got a few memories of a clean-shaven guy, good-looking, with a smile that could charm anyone. The smile's nowhere to be seen now, though.

Vaughn shrugs. "When your old boss finds you in the middle of the Alaskan tundra and tells you she needs you for a special mission, you don't ask if you can shave first."

"You could've shaved," Lillian says as she walks in behind Vaughn. "In fact, you probably should."

"After the spar," Vaughn says. "Might as well see if I came all the way here for nothing before I start getting cozy."

Riley shrugs to loosen her shoulders. "Ready when you are."

Vaughn nods thoughtfully, and then he's launching himself at her. He's a lot faster than Riley had anticipated; he's not as quick as she is, but she's not outmaneuvering him like she thought she would. He grins when she leans in to tag him and he rolls out of the way, and Riley can feel herself grinning back as she tucks into a forward roll to spring up on his other side.

They dance around the gym in a fluid fight. Riley's been taught how to take down someone bigger than her, but his reach is too long for her to get that close without compromising herself; he's stronger, but the few times he manages to get in a position to use that, she's able to use her flexibility to break his hold. It's an evenly matched spar, and by the time Lillian blows her whistle, Riley already knows what the result is going to be.

-0-

"Drift compatible," Vaughn says, rolling the words around like he's not sure they taste quite right. "I mean, we had a good spar, Lil, but are you sure?"

Lillian glances at Riley, then at Vaughn. Her face softens. "I know you don't want to go back out there, Gabriel."

"Damn right I don't," he agrees. "Last time I was out there, my wife got torn out of my Jaeger, and nobody thought it was worth looking for her."

"It's not that," Lillian begins.

"Save it," he says, and Riley can't tell if he's upset or just tired of talking about what's obviously a sore subject for him. "You really think we're gonna brain bond?"

Riley coughs, and they both look at her. "For what it's worth, I'm willing to try."

Vaughn raises an eyebrow. "Pretty high praise for someone who won't even use my first name, _Riley_."

"You haven't earned it yet, _Vaughn_ ," she replies sweetly. "Let's see if we can drift first, then we'll talk semantics."

Vaughn stares for a few seconds before throwing his head back and laughing. "You know what, Lil? I changed my mind. Let's do this thing."

-0-

Vaughn sighs when he sees Delta Force in all her glory, fixed and improved to the best of Riley's and the Cassidys' ability. She's expecting some tension from him, but Vaughn just pats Delta Force on the shoulder like an old friend before climbing in.

He straps into the right side while she gets into the left, and before long, Lillian's voice is coming over the speaker. "Preparing to initiate test. Are you two ready?"

"Ready," they confirm in unison. Riley doesn't want to take it as a sign, but she knows better by now. Coincidences aren't actually coincidences when you're drift compatible.

"You know what to do, Delta Force," Lillian says, and then they're booting, they're moving together-

_four years old and she's in the middle of the park, everything's gone, Mommy and Daddy are gone, but there's a woman in a robot who's kneeling and smiling and talking so gently-_

_sixteen and he sees her for the first time, on campus as he's cutting through, she's smiling and laughing and so gorgeous and he doesn't have a chance-_

_fifteen and she's determined, she's small and fast and she can hit hard, harder, and she can ignore the way her leg is throbbing until she feels something snap and there's agony-_

_nineteen and she's smiling and laughing at him, Amelia, her name's Amelia, and he's gonna marry her if it's the only thing he ever does-_

_twelve and she sees Lillian's face crumple when they lose another Jaeger, and she doesn't want to cry, doesn't want to let Lillian see her mourning when she's got her own grief to handle-_

_twenty-six and they're drift compatible, and Amelia lets him name their Jaeger Delta Force in exchange for naming rights to their first human baby, she laughs and talks about the future with him-_

_nineteen when Delta Force goes down, and it's old hat by now, losing pilots and Jaegers left and right, but it's different, Gabriel Vaughn survives, and they have their first recorded case of what happens to a pilot who doesn't die when their drift partner does, and it's awful, it's awful-_

_twenty-eight and he can hear her scream ricochet through his head, Amelia Amelia Amelia, he can feel the pain in her shoulder when she smashes into the ground and skids, hear her calling, calling, Gabriel please, I'm still-_

"I'm still alive," and it's ringing in his ears as Delta Force falls from the sky. He's hurt badly, pinned into Delta Force, and Amelia's voice is getting weaker. His brain insists it's because she's dying, but then she says "No, no, it's distance," and he reaches out, reaches because she's been part of his life for twelve years and she's slipping out of his grasp.

Riley watches and feels and experiences it all, and she can see Gabriel falling into the memory. She's losing him and she knows it. His eyes are tracking behind the cracked visor on his suit, and his fingers are curling around a phantom hand as she kneels next to him in the memory.

"Amelia," he croaks out. "Where – where are you, I can't-"

"Gabriel," Riley says. She knows her voice is shaking, but her hands are thankfully steady. "Gabriel. I need you to focus on my voice, okay? Do you remember me?"

Gabriel's eyes flicker to her face for a moment before he starts focusing on what he's hearing. She can hear it too, linked as they are, and it's absolutely haunting to hear Amelia trying desperately to communicate with Gabriel, a static loop that's been playing on repeat in his head for the past seven years.

"Gabriel," she says, reaching out to grasp his hand. He looks at their hands in shock, then looks up at her face. "We'll look for Amelia. I believe you, okay? We'll look for her, but you have to come back."

"Riley," he says, voice questioning. He squeezes her hand slightly before repeating himself. "Riley Neal. Lil's pipsqueak."

Riley smiles at him as well as she can. "You earned a first name, Vaughn. Don't make me take it back."

He laughs a little and squeezes her hand again, and she's pretty sure they're going to be okay.


End file.
